Revision as of 04:01, 30 May 2012

Remote Access to the Raspberry Pi

The ssh daemon will allow you to run a remote command line (CLI) and/or a remote GUI.

Running a remote CLI

You need to have a ssh client program. linux and mac already have this installed for windows get Putty or an alternative.
Note: If you use a Windows program to do this stuff then please add some documentation somewhere on the wiki and also bear in mind that you may need to read the manual.

In order for this to work you must have port 22 open between you and the Pi. You must also have set up a user on the Rpi to use. (see beinners page or CLI page for how to do this)

If you are using a cli on linux or mac then just do

ssh <ip address of your Rpi> -l <username of RPi user you set up previously>

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.

brian@raspberrypi:~$

At this point you are running everything you type on the Rpi.

Running a remote GUI

To do this, you need an X server on your machine. There is a free one available for Windows and Mac.

Two Xservers for Windows are Cygwin (which has a lot more besides) and XMing

For a Mac, I believe you get one if you install Gimp on you Mac (if there isn't one already in your OSX)

Linux has one built in.

The command uses the X switch to tell ssh to send the X commands to the X server on your host.

ssh -X <ip address of Rpi> -l <username on Rpi>

What is an Xserver?

A 'nix box running a GUI is almost certainly running "X" and also an X Server. The X sends commands to the X Server about what kind of things to put on the screen and the X server does it. This means that the GUI and the X server are separate. This also means that you can run a program on the Rpi and have all the graphical bit appear on the screen of the X Server somewhere else on the network. This removes a large amount of processor demand from the Rpi.

Here is a record of what happens with me when I run the command. Log in and then run "midori" which is the browser on this Rpi.